Empirically Assessing the Impact of Photo Identification at the Polls Through an Examination of Provisional Balloting

Empirically Assessing the Impact of Photo Identification at the Polls Through an Examination of Provisional Balloting PDF Author: Michael J. Pitts
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Despite the Supreme Court's opinion from last term in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, it seems like the debate over laws that require prospective voters at the polls to present government-issued photo identification will continue to rage in both legislatures and courtrooms throughout America. However, one of the fundamental missing pieces in this debate is an empirical assessment of how many prospective voters are unable to cast a countable ballot because of photo identification laws. This article analyzes data related to the 2008 Indiana primary election to determine: (1) how many voters arrived at the polling place without a photo identification and then cast a provisional ballot; and (2) how many of the photo identification-related provisional ballots were ultimately counted. Importantly, the analysis presented here takes a unique empirical approach because as part of this research actual documents related to provisional ballots were obtained. In the end, it is estimated that at the 2008 primary election nearly 400 persons cast provisional ballots because they lacked photo identification and the vast majority (80% of those ballots) were not counted. After presenting the numbers, this Article concludes with a discussion of the limits of this study and how opponents and proponents of photo identification might employ this research in the ongoing debate over photo identification.

Empirically Assessing the Impact of Photo Identification at the Polls Through an Examination of Provisional Balloting

Empirically Assessing the Impact of Photo Identification at the Polls Through an Examination of Provisional Balloting PDF Author: Michael J. Pitts
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Despite the Supreme Court's opinion from last term in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, it seems like the debate over laws that require prospective voters at the polls to present government-issued photo identification will continue to rage in both legislatures and courtrooms throughout America. However, one of the fundamental missing pieces in this debate is an empirical assessment of how many prospective voters are unable to cast a countable ballot because of photo identification laws. This article analyzes data related to the 2008 Indiana primary election to determine: (1) how many voters arrived at the polling place without a photo identification and then cast a provisional ballot; and (2) how many of the photo identification-related provisional ballots were ultimately counted. Importantly, the analysis presented here takes a unique empirical approach because as part of this research actual documents related to provisional ballots were obtained. In the end, it is estimated that at the 2008 primary election nearly 400 persons cast provisional ballots because they lacked photo identification and the vast majority (80% of those ballots) were not counted. After presenting the numbers, this Article concludes with a discussion of the limits of this study and how opponents and proponents of photo identification might employ this research in the ongoing debate over photo identification.

Clearinghouse Review

Clearinghouse Review PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Consumer protection
Languages : en
Pages : 648

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The Resilient Voter

The Resilient Voter PDF Author: Shauna Reilly
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498533531
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
The Resilient Voter: Stressful Polling Places and Voting Behavior provides a new perspective on the role voting barriers play, demonstrating that they not only discourage participation but also affect the quality of votes cast. Offering an interesting and unique approach to the study of voting barriers, Shauna Reilly and Stacy G. Ulbig investigate the possibility that complicated ballot language, provisional voting, and long polling place lines cause some voters to cast ballots in a manner contradictory to their preferences. Building on arguments that stressful polling place conditions subject citizens to stress that can prevent them from casting complete ballots or even choosing to vote at all, the authors ask whether those who endure polling place frustrations and persevere to cast a ballot might become so stressed by their experience that they are unable to mark their ballots in a manner consistent with their standing policy preferences. Using a creative experimental design, the authors examine the ways in which complex ballot language, registration difficulties, and long polling place lines affect voters’ stress levels, and how such anxieties translate into the willingness to cast a complete ballot and the ability to vote in a manner conforming to previously expressed preferences. The authors demonstrate that even though most voters prove remarkably resilient in the face of some potentially stressful polling place barriers, they are not immune to all polling place conditions. Further, they illustrate that some segments of the electorate tend to be more vulnerable to polling place stressors than others and illustrate the ways in which the compound effects of multiple barriers can exert an even wider impact.

Law and Election Politics

Law and Election Politics PDF Author: Matthew J. Streb
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136330186
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
Though the courts have been extremely active in interpreting the rules of the electoral game, this role is misunderstood and understudied—as, in many cases, are the rules themselves. Law and Election Politics illustrates how election laws and electoral politics are intertwined, analyzing the rules of the game and some of the most important—and most controversial—decisions the courts have made on a variety of election-related subjects. More than a typical law book that summarizes cases, Mathew Streb has assembled an outstanding group of scholars to place electoral laws and the courts‘ rulings on those laws in the context of electoral politics. They comprehensively cover the range of topics important to election law—campaign finance, political parties, campaigning, redistricting, judicial elections, the Internet, voting machines, voter identification, ballot access, and direct democracy. This is an essential resource both for students of the electoral process and scholars of election law and election reform.

New Directions in Campaigns and Elections

New Directions in Campaigns and Elections PDF Author: Stephen K. Medvic
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136980520
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 419

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Book Description
The ground upon which campaigns and elections are contested has been shifting rapidly in the last decade. Radical and ongoing changes to the way elections are administered and campaigns are financed; new approaches to polling, campaign management and advertising, and voter mobilization; and recent developments in the organization of political parties and interest groups, the operation of the media, and the behavior of voters require close examination. New Directions in Campaigns and Elections guides students through the tangle of recent developments in real-world politics drawing on the insights of innovative scholarship on these topics. More than any other aspects of American politics, campaigns and elections have been affected—in many cases transformed—by new communication technologies, a recurring theme throughout the volume. This tightly organized collection of original contributions raises important normative questions, grounds students’ thinking in cutting edge empirical research, and balances applied politics with scholarly insights. Like other volumes in the New Directions in American Politics series, the focused exploration of the latest developments across a comprehensive range of topics makes this an ideal companion for students eager to understand the rapidly changing political environment of the U.S. electoral process.

New State Voting Laws

New State Voting Laws PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Maine Law Review

Maine Law Review PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electronic journals
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Symposium

Symposium PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Election law
Languages : en
Pages : 406

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Developments in the Law

Developments in the Law PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Election law
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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MODELING THE EFFECT OF PHOTO IDENTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS ON VOTER TURNOUT

MODELING THE EFFECT OF PHOTO IDENTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS ON VOTER TURNOUT PDF Author: Matthew S. Doyle
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political planning
Languages : en
Pages : 90

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Book Description
Voter identification laws have become a highly contentious topic in American politics as society debates how to balance safeguarding the integrity of our elections with citizen participation. This thesis evaluates the claim made by voter identification requirement critics that increasingly stringent requirements lower voter turnout, particularly among certain demographic groups that may have a more difficult time meeting voter identification requirements. Specifically, this paper analyzes the effects that various levels of voter identification requirements may have on voter turnout, hypothesizing that more stringent voter identification requirements, such as requiring photo identification at the polls, are associated with lower voter turnout. This research uses individual level Current Population Survey (CPS) data for the 2004 through 2010 congressional and presidential elections, as well as compiled state election information. As cultural and other state level differences that may potentially impact voter turnout exist between states, such as the availability of mail-in voting, early voting, or same day registration, the analysis specifies a logistic state and year fixed-effects model of voter turnout with additional controls for individual characteristics. This study's primary finding is that photo identification requirements disproportionately impact young voters between the ages of 18 and 24, decreasing the probability that they turn out to vote.